<p>I was recently admitted to Wellesley and Bowdoin, and am having an extremely hard time deciding where to go. I am an art history major, but my major may change. Pleas help me decide where to go! Just some notes of both colleges: </p>
<p>Wellesley
- near boston
- family wants me to go
- good alumni connection
- name value
- take classes at MIT
- too competitive
- limited social scene </p>
<p>bowdoin
- scholarship (I was chosen as a Faculty Scholar when admitted, but am not receiving too much money: $3000)
- #1 art history program
- nice town (portland - city)
- great food
- school spirit with athletics (I am going to swim)
- nice administration
- less opportunities for jobs and internships??</p>
<p>Choose the college where you would feel most comfortable. BTW Bowdoin is only a 30 minute drive from Portland, and two hour drive from Boston. I think Wellesley might be a 45 minute drive from Boston, which is a bit far in my opinion to go back and forth. In a year or 2 there will be a train connecting Bowdoin to Boston! Then you can just hop on to the train across the street from school and experience Boston frequently.</p>
<p>I have friends who go to Wellesley and feel miserable. This might not be the case for other girls but for her, she didn’t feel comfortable in the cut-throat atmosphere, the social life she felt inadequate for her, and the lack of guys. I guess what she was looking for in Wellesley wasn’t what other girls wanted in their Wellesley. Wellesley is an amazing place but if you don’t feel a fit there it will not be.</p>
<p>In my experience Wellesley is anything but “cut-throat”. Students are encouraged to collaborate on academic work and seem very supportive of one another. There are free, very convenient shuttles between Wellesley and MIT that run continuously and take about 20 minutes; once you’re at MIT you can get anywhere in the Cambridge/Boston area via the subway. You can also take the regular commuting train right from central Wellesley to Boston’s South Station. Maybe in a couple of years there will be a train between Portland and Boston, but there’s no way it’s going to be a short, convenient trip.</p>
<p>I think it’s a huge advantage to be close to Boston, because there are so many other schools there and so much in the way of student-centered activities.</p>